I Don't Think I'm Ready For This (Holly Furtick)

they're hungry to hear from God. And God has sent us somebody today who lives the Word of God, and that's going to make it so much more powerful. Her authenticity only gets deeper the closer that you come. Matter of fact, she was all this week watching old videos of the church crying, and we were sitting around a table and shall be North Carolina getting ready to get started, even before you were here autumn, and that's how you've

been here a long time. But even before that, when we were sitting around the table and shall be North Carolina, and she said, come watch some of these. It'll touch your heart. I said, I don't want to watch it. I don't you know, like there's a there's a fine line between like getting back to your core and then cringing at everything that you know, like my how my voice sounded and everything. But I stuck in and watched one of the clips. I wanted them to show it

real quick with mute. I'm not going to let them hear my voice or what I was saying. But what I want you to notice is that that guy in the three size is too big, button down, who didn't deserve this, this woman that God gave him notices on August fourteen, two thousand and five, just about six months before we had our first public service. I believe that in just a moment, here comes somebody in the room. What's he doing? He's he's moving back for the person

who's supposed to be sitting beside him. And there's Elijah, who's fifteen now the OG of the Elevation Core team. And what I want you to see is her smile. And I want you to see how she carried Elijah, and how you've carried well. God has put in your heart for our ministry with grace and poise and dignity for fifteen years. You did it. Smiling, and you did it kindly, and we're thankful for the word that God gave you for us today. Last year Bishop Jakes preached

my anniversary. There's only one person I'd rather hear from. Let's thank God for Hollyferdick. Happy birthday Church. I wish everybody could have Pastor Stephen Verdick introduced them. That's just the best. Welcome to everyone worship being with us, happy anniversary. I know you're worshiping from your campus, or your living room or your watch party all over the world. I know you may have already typed in the chat where you're joining us from, but let's do it again. Say

hi to me, give me a little way. I'm just so excited to be here today and be celebrating the anniversary. It's always one of my favorite weeks in our church. You guys worship team, thank you, You're amazing. And by the way, Maverick City, you guys have led worship the last three times that I have preached, so I just want to say we should. You know, keep going. Can

make it a thing, Make it a thing. And by the way, that little collab that he was talking about, can I say collaboration I can't wait for you to hear it. It is unlike anything out there. It is anointed, it is fresh, it is incredible, and I'm so excited for it. On's it coming out soon soon. That's all you need to know. Okay, if you're in the room,

you can sit down. It's been fifteen years and earlier this week I got to spend some time with our staff just listening to stories and testimonies of how God has moved in each of our lives to this ministry, and I'm just I'm so grateful that I get to

be a part of this church. And as I was personally reflecting this week, I was watching old videos and looking through old pictures, I just I couldn't be more grateful for the faith of our pastor, because he has taught me about what faith actually looks like more than any other person, more than any Bible verse. He has shown me that there are two sides to faith. That there's the faith that has the confidence to speak up in the moment and declare something or decide something like

he just said, this is just the foundation. I can't tell you how many things I've heard him say from the front row that I was like whoa like. One time he said that we were going to give the entire weeks offering back into our community, and we didn't have a lot of extra money or any extra money in the bank at that time. One time he declared that we would reach ten thousand people by twenty ten, and I don't remember how many people we had at the time, but it wasn't close to ten thousand people

in attendance. Or when he decided that we needed to move all of our online worship experiences to YouTube. There's all these decisions that I've watched him make over the years, and that's one side of faith, and it's the side of faith that's backed by an intimate relationship with God, one that here's an act. But then there's this other side of faith. And you get to see the hear and act side of Pastor Stephen. But there's this other side of faith, and we all experience it, but we

don't know that it's normal. And that side of faith is the side that actually looks and feels like fear and doubt. And you don't know how many times I have heard my husband say, do you think we're doing the right thing? Is this irresponsible? Is this going to work? Is this gonna? Is this right? Why did I say that? And you've taught me over the past fifteen years that if there's no fear, it doesn't really require very much faith.

And you've taught me that faith requires work, and it requires grit and perseverance even though you're throwing up behind closed doors when no one else knows. You've taught me that it's okay when what you believe you heard from God doesn't necessarily line up with what you feel or see in your current circumstances. I think about our Matthews campus. If you're part of our Matthew's campus and you don't know the story of your campus, you'd better ask Larry Brye,

because I don't know. I have so many memories. But I'm also thankful for all the people who have come alongside us over the years and have joined their faith with ours, whether it's people who are on our staff and who have come alongside or people who've just given faithfully and volunteered week after week. And I just know that you would agree with me that as I stand here and say faith, thank you, Pastor Stephen, for letting us ride your spiritual coattails. Your faith has allowed us

to see what God can do through us. Type it in the chat. If you're watching, God is just getting started, and I believe that the next fifteen years is going to be just as extraordinary as the last. I love you? Okay? Can I preach today? I cannot wait to share with you the things that God has been teaching me. I knew that I wanted to preach this when I read this story, and literally everything that Steven has been preaching for the last two months just kept leaping off the

page at me, like something from every sermon. So I'm so excited. Are you ready? Okay, I got my my preaching pans. I'm gonna tighten my belt. Let's pray. Lord. We thank you for this church. We thank you for your church. Fifteen years seems like a lifetime when we think about all that you have done. Most of all, we thank you that this is the place. I thank you that this is the place where you speak to me.

And no matter where we're watching from, whether it's in our living rooms or on our computers, driving in our cars, God, we're here, We're here, We're listening. Would you comfort us, would you encourage us? Would you inspire us? Would you challenge us? Today? We want a touch from you, Lord, We want to hear from you. Speak through me. Now. It's in Jesus name. I pray Amen before I read our scriptures. Judge is six. You can make your way there.

It's in the beginning of the Bible. I want to take a poll, so let me know in the chat. Do you put stickers on your car? Just give me a thumbs up or a thumbs down. My dad never ever let us put stickers, you bumper stickers on his car and I so I never put stickers on my car until until this sticker. All, well, that's your folder, this one's mine. Tell this one. By the way, these are free if you ask your campus pastor from one, or you can order one online. I don't know if

they're free online, but they're free, I guess. Anyway. Nothing against all other stickers, And sorry dad, but I had to put a sticker on my car, and I started thinking about other stickers that people put on your car, on their cars. It's kind of funny what made you When you see people stickers, you're like, what made you want to put that on your car? So some of them you can understand, you know, like like this, I never put one of these on my car, but let me know in the chat if you ever put one

of these on your car. Most of these belonged to first time parents. Then you move up in the world and you get one of these and well, we don't have a dog. But here's the funny thing about these, like these are cute, you know, but then some people get really carried away with these, like the fish, the sound really permanent. You know, this is your car. Okay, sorry, I got a couple more. I'm gonna go a little faster. We have these, no comment, Just here's when I'm never

gonna put on my car. If you have one of these on your car, congratulations, we are so proud of you. That ain't happening for me. And then okay, here's here's one more, because you know, you see these statements that people put on their cars and you just wonder, like here, I'm gonna show it to you first, see if you can the standstill, like what happened to this guy? What happened to him that he was like, I'm getting a

freaking sticker. So recently though, I joined like a club of sorts and I had to put another sticker on my car next to my elevation one and it's this one. God as my witness. No one could have prepared me for this stage of parenting. I've heard people say that teaching your kids to drive is hard and scary, and there's a lot of yell But guys, to date, fifteen years I've been a mom. To date, this is the hardest thing that I have done. I'm not throwing Elijah

under the bus. He's doing a great job, but this is like, it's like getting in a roller coaster, getting on a roller coaster that could actually crash, and we have three kids. Thank god we stopped at three because I have to do this two more times. And I will never forget the day that we walked out of the DMV. I don't know who was more proud of

Elijah or me. It was such a great moment, a little bit drama because you know, there's a pandemic going on, and let's just be honest, the DMV was rough before COVID. So this was our second trip to the DMV, and I just I'm not gonna go into deals about why it was a second trip, but it just say I did go back in. The sign said do not come in because you had wait outside, and I did go back in. I was like, I need help because it's

just anyway. So Elijah gets his permit and he's completed the states required thirty hours in the classroom, he's done six hours behind the wheel with the instructor. He's passed his test, and he was ready to get behind the wheel. And as we walked to the car, I just confidently said, all right, you're driving us home. And he looked at me and he said, I don't think I'm ready for this.

So inside I was not confident at all. But I really I got in my head that I wanted him to have this memory of us, of him driving away from the DMV. So I mustered up all my courage and I said, of course you're ready. This is how you learn to drive. Let's go. So we got in the car and he adjusted his seat and we made sure the mirrors you were right, and he put the car in drive. And I just, seriously, I cannot cannot

reiterate enough. Handing your child the keys to your own vehicle you've paid money for and letting them drive you is it's like a loss of control that can only be experienced. But I put on a smile and I was like, you got this. But I didn't really think it all the way through because I don't. That's I don't always think things all the way through. And we had to get on I eighty five to go home,

so I'm like, it's okay, it's okay, everything's okay. And so our entrance came up, and I prayed and I stayed calm, and I talked him through it, because that's what you have to do when you're teaching a kid how to drive. You have no idea how much stuff you do without thinking while you're driving. So I'm like, speed up, not that fast, slow down, but don't break. Look to see if anyone's coming, and remerg And so

we picked up speed and we're going. And just when I was at a level of threshold of fear and anxiety that I could possibly stand, it started to rain. I promise you, and I said, pull over. I'm not ready for this. That's the title of my message today. I don't think I'm ready for this. Have you ever felt like you had to do something that you were not ready for, but like you're already in it. We

encounter situations like this every day. Sometimes it's a season of life that you weren't ready for, but here you are. Sometimes it's a pandemic and you find yourself doing a job that you weren't really hired to do. Sometimes it's things beyond your control that happened. Maybe you're now caring for an elderly parent or fighting an illness that you didn't expect. How many of you would agree that if you waited until you feel ready or qualify to do something,

you're never gonna do it. This is life. So today we're gonna look at the life of Gideon, a young man who was minding his own business. He was trying to survive, just like everyone around him. But God came to him and he called him out to lead his nation, even though he didn't think he was ready. Let's look at this Judges, chapter six, verse one. The Israelites did evil in the Lord's sight, so the Lord handed them

over to the Midianites for seven years. The Midianites were so cruel that the Israelites made hiding places for themselves in the mountains, caves, and strongholds. Whenever the Israelites planted crops. Marauders from Midian Amelek and the people of the East would attack Israel in the land and destroying crops as far away as Gaza. They left the Israelites with nothing to eat, taking all of the sheep, goats, cattle, and donkeys. These enemy hordes, coming with their livestock and tents, were

as thick as locusts. They arrived on droves of camels too numerous to count, and they stayed until the land was stripped bear. So Israel was reduced to starvation by the Midianites. Then the Israelites cried out to the Lord for help. Stripped bear, reduced to starvation, they cried out. Sad thing about this is that it's only a few generations after Israel fled slavery in Egypt, and here we find them hungry and hiding in their own land. Have you ever been hungry and hiding when you were supposed

to be flourishing and free. Maybe something happened to you and you feel stripped bare. It's funny how unexpected circumstances can just come and knock us off our feet. They just come from nowhere, and it can be a job.

It could be an illness. It could be the end of a relationship, or some of us have experienced a sudden onset of anxiety, and it could It could even be a change that you thought was gonna be awesome, like maybe you went away to college, but now you're just struggling to find your place, like you thought this was gonna be amazing, and how you're like lonely and maybe maybe this isn't where I was supposed to be and could be even like Israel, a series of your

own poor decisions that led you to this place of confusion and pain. And I think when things like this happen, our natural instant is to withdraw. I don't want to admit to others that I need help. I don't even want to cry out to God because I feel like I should be doing better than this. We feel like it's our own fault that we're suffering. And the thing about hiding is that it feels right at the time, but then it only makes you feel more isolated and alone.

And for whatever reason that we find ourselves in this place, we start to convince ourselves that no one understands, no one cares, and so we just pull away even more and we become starved for meaningful interaction with others, in hungri or acceptance, and it makes you kick into scavenger mode. You've ever been in scavenger mode and you're mad at everyone, You're mad at the world, and you're trying to satisfy your soul and all the places that never really fulfill you.

And that's where we find Israel at the moment. I just wonder if you can relate, if you've ever experience this feeling. They know they shouldn't be in this place. They know they don't have to continue to live this way, and the Bible tells us that they got to the point where they were so impoverished that they cried out to the Lord for help. And I think it's so interesting that sometimes we have to get so low before we finally cry out to God. Don't worry, this sermon

is not depressing, because God hears our Christ. That's what you have to know today. And in my experience, God here is my cries. But usually relief comes in the form of action on my part, something I'm gonna have to do, and that's where I want to spend the bulk of our time today. An angel comes to Gideon, and he's gonna call him to action. Gideon is going to be the one to lead the nation of Israel

in a fight against their oppressors. And their oppressors are big, and we're gonna watch Gideon question and doubt, but then we're ultimately going to see him put his faith into action in an incredible way. Spoiler alert, because I'm not going to get to the end of the story. I'm just going to tell you about it now. Gideon and only three hundred men defeat the Midianite army of over one hundred and fifty thousand men, and Gideon lives to

be an old man today. I want to talk through the events that led up to this epic victory because you know, we love to sing I'm going to see a victory for the battle. You know, we like the battle does belong to the Lord. But that doesn't mean that you get to sit up in the stands and watch like a spectator. So what do you do when you know your entery into a new season, a new battle, a new calling, a new role. How do you shift from how you're currently surviving to actually living out that

faith that's inside of you. God never wants us to live in hiding. He never intended us to live with fear looking around every corner. He doesn't want us scavenging for scraps of encouragement on social media. When you cry out to him, he hears you and he helps you, but he doesn't do it for you. Because it's in that place of crying out and questioning and acting even when we aren't sure, even when we don't feel ready. That's where God does some of his greatest work within us.

And as we talk through this story today, I'm going to give you four things to remind yourself about God when you're facing a new situation and you don't feel ready. Not for things to remember about yourself. Yes, you can do all things through Christ's strengthens you, but when it comes time to put your faith into action, we have to remember who is really on our side. That's what I want to talk about today, So let's get down

verse eleven. Then the Angel of the Lord came and sat beneath the great tree at Oprah, which belonged to joe Ash of the clan of Abiazar. Gideon, son of joe Ash, was threshing wheat at the bottom of a wine press, to hide the grain from the Midianites. The Angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, mighty hero, the Lord is with you. First thing that you must remember is that when God calls you, he calls according

to your potential. I don't know much about wheat, I like to eat it or wine presses, but I'm pretty sure that you're not supposed to thresh wheat in a wine press. Gideon was hiding from the enemy, and he was just trying to get enough food, enough wheat to feed his family. He was just trying to get by one more day, just an ordinary day for him in hiding, and an angel comes to him, and some translations say that the angel calls him mighty warrior. There's nothing mighty

or warrior about Gideon in this moment. He's hiding, he's starving. Aren't you grateful that God calls us according to the potential He sees in us, not our past decisions, not our present circumstances. Don't you wish you could actually see yourself the way God sees you? And I think back

to starting this church. I remember Stephen and I dreaming and planting, planting, dreaming and planning about one day planting a church, and we would say things like, you know, one day when we're older, maybe when we're forty, maybe when we're wiser, when people would actually want to follow us. But very clearly God just spoke to us and he was just we just knew it was time for us to start this church. We were twenty five years old,

and we put that into perspective. For some of you, we'd only been out of the college dorm room for three years. We were not pastors, we were not church planning experts. We were children. God doesn't see you as unemployed. He sees you as a provider. God doesn't see you as a stressed out mom. He sees you as a nurturer. He doesn't he you as insecure. He sees you as confident in your own personality, in your own skin. You might be hiding, but that's not who you really are.

And God is not looking for perfection, because if he was, he wouldn't have picked us. He wouldn't have picked me, and he wouldn't have picked you. He's looking for potential. He is perfectly okay with the space between who you are right now in this moment and who you're going to become. Because he sees the fighter in you deep inside. He sees a person who will fight for progress. He

sees a person who will fight for their family. He sees a person who will fight to keep their integrity and their honesty even when it gets hard in their job. A person who will fight to do the right thing even when it feels like everyone else is doing that's the wrong thing. That's who you are. The thing is in Gideon's current state, he's so bitter about his situation.

I don't even think he heard the Mighty Warrior part because he got caught up on the part where the Lord the Lord says, hold on, well, let me get let me bit back to it. He got caught up on the part look at what the Angel says, this is verse thirteen. Sir Gideon replied, if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? And where are the miracles our ancestors told us about? Didn't they say? The Lord brought us up out of Egypt, But now the Lord has abandoned us and handed us

over to Midian. Gidding got caught up on the Lord is with you part. He's like, what kind of promised land is this that's what he wants to know. This is a Bible amazing because don't tell me that you've never spoken to God like that. Don't tell me you've never prayed? Where are you? And why is this happening to me? Have you ever thought? Have you ever prayed? Have you ever thought? Everyone else is getting a breakthrough but me and my family can be honest with you.

I have prayed some prayers to God that I really hope he wasn't listening. I've said things like, seriously, God, you're gonna bless them? God, where have you been? This was supposed to be my dream job. This was supposed to be ministry, and it feels like everything's falling apart. God, where are you? This is not how I thought it would go. And you say you're with me, but I can't feel right now. Hey, God is so good because he's like that parent that completely ignores his kid's tantrum

and he just moves right on with his instruction. What he says to Gideon, the Lord turned to him and said, go in the strength that you have and save Israel out of Midian's hand. Am I not sending you? God says to Gideon, Let's go get up. I'm gonna use you. Yes you put it in a chat. Yes you, but I'm not good enough. Yes you but I'm not old enough. Yes you but I'm too old. Yes you, I'm not strong enough. Yes you you wherever you're watching from God

wants to use you. Sit down. My second point is this, God prepares you along the way. I'm just gonna tell you right now, Yes you, but you're never gonna feel ready, and you're never gonna feel full of faith all the time. Feeling full only last momentarily, and then the fear sets in, and then the doubt, and then the hard stuff like the people come along, the baby actually comes, you actually

have a roommain in college. Stop waiting to feel ready, Stop making excuses for why you can't do the things you're called to do, And let me be a little bit more clear. Most of the time, in my experience, God doesn't call me to do something new. He calls me to do something that I'm already doing with a better attitude and a bigger purpose. And the temptation is to walk away from what you're doing and start something new. I think I need a new marriage, a new church,

a new job. I can't do this anymore. I don't have the strength to keep going in this relationship any longer. But God told Gideon, let's go. The strength that you have is enough for this moment. When God gives you an assignment, he makes it big enough for you to question it and small enough for you to take the first step. You have the strength that you need for the task that you've been given today. If your child is three, you have what you need to raise a

three year old. And when they're thirteen, you still won't feel ready, but you'll be stronger and you'll be wiser than you were ten years before. God's not going to lay your future out in front of you. If he did, you would never come out of hiding. And it's not because there's this big, bad, terrible situation it's gonna happen to you. It's because it's more than you could ask

or imagine. We're celebrating our church's fifteenth anniversary today and I've been thinking back on all the amazing things that God's done. I can't stop thinking about how we only had to have enough faith to start, not to finish. Starting faith type that in the chat Starting faith, that's all you need the courage to start this week. My husband, he already told you this. But I when I am preparing for a sermon, I get in these rabbit holes and sometimes it's I mean, it can be anything. I think.

At one point I was looking at camping gear this week. I don't like camping CAMPI here and so. But one of the rabbit holes that I went in was watching old videos of our court team meetings. I think I have a picture for you. Okay, Chunks and Navy, this is your living room. This is a picture that I don't think we've ever shown anyone before. Remember that chair

with the fish on it. So here's Stephen preaching. He's preaching his heart out to about fifteen people, and he's telling them how we're going to start a church and how the worship is going to draw people in and the sermons are are going to be relevant and people are going to want to invite their friends. And then with all the passion that you can imagine, Pastor Stephen Furdick at age twenty five, he says, and I believe he has this country accent back then. It's really funny.

And I believe with all my heart that we are going to impact the city of Charlotte, and I watched that this week and I thought when he was like, we are going to impact them, my thinking the world and he's just Charlotte. You're telling me God gave this man a vision to impact a medium sized city in the southwestern southwestern southeastern United States. Division. Wasn't that we would be the fastest growing church plant Division. Wasn't that

we would write songs that other churches would sing. Division. Wasn't that we would have a global online ministry that would impact people all over the world. He didn't proclaim passionately that we would have multiple locations. It's easy for me to look back now and just Charlotte, But at the time, Charlotte was massive to us. But today, let's just do a little experiment. Let me know in that where are you watching from, even if you're watching later

in the archive, type it in the chat. Let me know if your life has been touched by this ministry. Let me know where you were watching from. Phoenix, Nigeria, Singapore, Atlanta, Jamaica, New York, Cape Town. Not to mention all the people in Charlotte. I hope you're clapping your hands wherever you are because God wants to do more than you can ask or imagine. But for today, he gives you the

strength that you need right now. That's it, because the thing about strength is is developed along the way, get a little bit stronger. That's how faith grows. The point of faith is for you to look back and see how far you've come, but to look forward and feel a little bit afraid. I love that surm this past weekend from Pastor Stephens so much. He said, same devils, new levels. But he told us you might be fighting the same battles, but it's a stronger you that's fighting

each time, and you're not fighting this battle alone. Over and over, God keeps telling Gideon, I will be with you Verse fifteen. But Lord Gideon replied, how can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest in the whole tribe of Manassa, and I'm the least in my family. Gideon is still not on board with this plan. He's still telling God that he's not the right person for this, that he's not good enough, that he doesn't come from a strong family background. And again God does not answer

these questions. He simply says, I will be with you, and you will destroy the Midianites as if you were fighting against one man. See, he doesn't tell him it's he's only gonna have three hundred people helping him. He doesn't need to know that part. Gideon replied, if you're truly going to help me, show me a sign to prove that it is really the Lord speaking to me. Don't go away until I come back and bring my offering to you. And he answered, I will stay here

until you return. You got to remember that God is patient. That's my third thing, and I want to make sure you get it. If you only hear me say one thing today, I want you to hear this. God is patient with you. In church, we love to talk about waiting on God, and we should. We should definitely wait on God. The Bible tells us wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and he will strengthen your heart. And I say a forty thirty one. They will wait on the Lord will renew their strength. They will mount

up on wings like eagles. They will run and not be weary. They will walk and not be faint. But Gideon wasn't soaring on eagles wings. He was weary, he was hungry, he was fainting. He was out of patience for God. For seven years, Israel was oppressed by Midian. Seven years is a long time, and Gideon had given up on God. But aren't you glad that we serve a God. He never gives up on us. He's so patient.

Everyone loves to quote Isaiah forty thirty one. You know what Verse twenty eight says, I gotta show it to you. It says, do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no man can fathom. The Angel told Gideon, I al ways here for you to return. And I believe that God is waiting for you right where you left off. He's waiting for you to return to him.

He's patient with your questions, he's patient with your fear, he's patient with your poor decisions. He's waiting for you to come back to him. I struggled so much with this message because I kept asking God, Gideon's he's gonna go and he's going to make this sacrifice, and God's calling him to do something, And I kept asking God, what does calling mean to us? Right now? Today in twenty twenty one, because calling is such a religious word. You know, I grew up in a good old Southern

Baptist church and we love to talk about calling. Like when you were about to get a new pastor, they would come and preach to the congregation and it was called in view of a call. I never really knew what that meant, but I do not. But then that pastor who's preaching in view of a call would give an invitation for you to accept God's call. And usually this meant things like a call to join our church, or a call to the mission field, or a call the full time ministry, or it could mean a call

to simply surrender your life to Jesus. God can call you to do a lot of things, but the most important call is the one where you decide to surrender your life to Him. And that's what I really think God was calling Gideon to do. He was calling him to a specific task, but he was also calling him out of survival mode and into a relationship with him. He keeps telling him over and over again, I will be with you, Yes, you, I have a lot that I want to do through you. And the Bible tells

us that. Gideon hurried home and he started to gather up a sacrifice for the Lord, and he could the goat and he made some bread without yeast. Gideon had that flat bread faith, just like his ancestors a few generations back. Gideon didn't have time for the bread to rise. God was waiting on him. And more than that, you know, unlevined bread. It had a significance. It represented freedom from oppression. So that's the gift that he's going to bring to God. So he gets back to the angel and he brings

his sacrifice. And I gotta tell you, I thought about this. I was like, God, why did Why did Gideon bring a sacrifice? What does this mean? Does God require some sort of sacrifice from us when we come to him? Does he call us to sacrifice our gifts, our money, our time? And then I remembered what Paul said in Romans twelfth. Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is your

true and proper worship. What God wants for me is me, all of me. He wants my whole life a living sacrifice, one that understands that the purpose of my life is not what I accomplish, it's who I accomplish it with. That's why God kept telling Gideon over and over again, I will be with you. Yes, he was calling him to accomplish something, but I think the point was that Gideon understood that God wanted him, and that God was going to wait patiently for Gideon to accept this calling.

So Gideon brings this sacrifice. It was costly, though it's costly to give God your life. He brought him a goat and bread. Remember they were starving. And to me, I think Gideon's sacrifice was saying, God, here's everything I have, because I know that you're the one who truly fills me. I gotta tell you again, God is waiting for you right now, not future. You, not skinny, you, not married, you, certainly not famous you. God doesn't need you to be

famous to use you. He's waiting for you to come to him with everything that you don't like about yourself, everything that you don't understand about him, and just surrender yourself in faith anyway, softly and tenderly. Jesus is calling the God of the universe he's waiting for you. He's waiting for you. Gideon offers up his sacrifice. I mean that's when he finally realizes that it was in fact an angel of the Lord all along. And the Bible tells us that the Lord says to him, do not

be afraid, you will not die. And Gideon built an altar to the Lord, and there he named it Yahweh Shalom, which means the Lord is Peace. The altar remains in Ophrah, in the land of the clan of bias Are to this day. When you say yes to God, he gives you peace markers. I didn't say peace makers, peace markers. God is calling Gideon to fight, but he wants him to mark the peace that he has in that moment. Yahweih shalom, the Lord is peace. This piece was not

a call to the end of conflict. The fight hadn't even started yet. This is shalom. This is a sense of completeness, wholeness, and it points to the presence of something you can't put your finger on. And when Gideon experienced it, God spoke loud and clear to him, do not be afraid. You're not gonna die. He made sure he didn't want to forget that, so he built an altar right there that he could look back to. Can you think of any peace markers along your faith journey?

You spent some time writing a few of mine out this week, moments that I look back to when I begin to wonder if God is really with me. Peace Markers can be an answer to prayer. They can be a timely call or a text from a friend that just felt like they must God must have told them. It can be a sermon, you know those sermons when you feel like your pastor got hijacked your pastor's mouth and just spoke directly to you when you were about

to give up. I love all the stories of our church when people say I was done, and then I heard God say, and when you get one, you got to make sure you don't forget it. You got to write it down, you got to tell someone. A peace marker can be a song. Not too long ago, I came to church feeling really heavy with doubt over a decision that we had made for about one of our kids. And at the time when we made the decision, it felt right in the moment, it felt like, yes, we're

going to do this. But then a series of events had me doubting and I was on the front row just trying to hold back tears. So this is why you got to come to church, because they sang a song. They sang that song, this is how you walk on water. And I know God doesn't speak out loud, but he was speaking loud and clear to me in that moment. He was telling me, one foot in front of the other, one day at a time, little by little, I'm gonna

lead you. I'm gonna give you the strength that you need right now in this moment to get you through. And you know, that decision turned out to be exactly right for that child. But I didn't know it. But God spoke to me in that moment and I could go back to it. Peace markers can be an event. I remember when we emptied the bank account. We when we say we emptied the bank account, there wasn't that

much in it. Did it a couple of times, but it wasn't, you know whatever, But we emptied the bank account. It was all that we had to drop eggs out of a helicopter and we found out the day before the event that the mailer wasn't going to make it to people's mailboxes in time, and this is how we were going to invite people to come back. Then that's what you did, you put junk mail in people's boxes.

It was going to be our first Easter at Elevation, and we were going to use this event to get people to hear about our church and to maybe come because more people come to church on Easter, you know. And it's a story that we have told a thousand times in the history of this church, but it never gets old because I was there and I vividly remember thinking, no one's going to show up. How are they going to know about this event? We wasted all of our money, so we had a pity party in our house. I

don't need to tell you what pity parties like. It's pretty quiet. And after a while Stephen came downstairs and he said, me and Chunks are going to Kinkos. We're going to pronounce some flyers. Because he wasn't gonna just sit around while there was still time to do something. So we printed off flyers and we went to Walmart and we put flyers on people's cars that night before

the event. Sorry, it was all we had. It was all we could do was all we could think of, and the next day more people came than we could handle. I have no idea where all those people came from. I mean, I don't know. Maybe thousands, hundreds, I don't know. It was a lot at the time, because we had like sixteen people at the time. But the event was a huge success. And that night we sat in our living room and we watched the story on the local news about our church, our little church, and we were

blown away. We didn't know where all those people had come from. We certainly didn't put out that many flyers. How did all those people hear about our little event? We couldn't stop talking about it, and there was this peace God was with us in this. You know how many times over the past fifteen years we've wondered if people were gonna come. Every time we opened a new campus, my husband would asked me, you think people are gonna come? If my husband asked me one time, he asked me

a thousand times, you think people are gonna come? Every time we started something new, and when our fear felt like more than we could handle, we focused on those peace markers. So the fear never goes away. You just get a little bit stronger along the way. And there were so many times that we stepped out in faith to do something that we thought God was calling us to do. We had to look back and remember the egg drop and remember all the other things along the way.

You know, on March fourteenth, twenty twenty, when shelter in Place was declared, the fear was back in full force. The pity party was back in our house. And you can bet as Stephen Verdick was pacing the halls of our house because the doors of our church were gonna close and the people were still gonna need the message of Jesus Christ more than ever. And he was afraid about preaching in an empty room with a message still translate. But our people still showed up. You showed up in

the chat, you kept giving. And you know, over the past year, our campus pastors and our staff, we'd had to fight to reinvent the way that we do church. We'd had to learn how to lead us from zoom. We'd had to pastor people over Facebook groups. We'd had to figure out how to open up our buildings again safely. And it's scary, But if you're not a little bit scary, you don't need any faith fifteen years. God has been with us every step of the way, because the strength

that we have is enough for today. It's like manna. God gave us all the strength that we needed at the time. If He gave us all the strength at once, we never need him. You can go and read the rest of Gideon's story. He went on to lead Israel to freedom. In fact, the Bible says that the Israelites never fought Midian again. And I believe that the message today it's not about Gideon's battle with Midian. It's about

his battle to restore his faith than God. It's about his fight to become that mighty warrior that God saw in him all along. And I believe that God stands before us today, patiently waiting for you to come back to him. He wants you to experience his presence in our day to day lives. He wants you to see that He's with you, even when your circumstances suggest otherwise. He waits with a great feast for you. You don't have to be hungry anymore. And all he wants from

you is your life. He wants all of it, your pain, your fear, your questions, your faults, your secrets. He wants your gifts and talents too. Sometimes I think it takes more faith for me to give God the ugly places, because God would what do you possibly want with those? He delights in you. You're his child, all of you. Right now, He's going to give you the strength that you need for every situation that lies ahead. But most of all, He's going to be with you every step

of the way, every single step. Let's pray. Lord, What can we say but thank you? And also God, we're coming back to right now in this moment. Some of us are coming back for the first time. Some of us are coming back for the one thousand time. We're offering, we're offering are all to you right now. God, I don't know why you want me, but if you want me, you've got me. This is all you want. I can

give you that. God, would you minister to us in this moment, help us to maybe just fear your presence, to remind us of those peace markers that you've given us all along the journey. Thank you for your patience, Thank you for your strength. Just take a minute, think about it. Think about the times that He's come through for you. Think about the moments when you felt so alone. But now that you look back, he was with you the whole time. There's moments when he spoke to you.

Do not be afraid, you will not die. Got you, here's my life. Thank you that you're going to give me the strength to do everything that you're calling me to do. O little, she said, She's suicide makes so she shows to suicide shore. She shot that figue gee yes you, yes you, yes you not me. Couldn't be me. He couldn't choose me, he couldn't use me. I'm not so smart like other people. I didn't come from a good home. Yes you what man rejects God selects. Yes you.

You might be the littlest, you might be the loneliest, You might be in the lowest place of your life. But like Holly said, Jesus is calling right now. Would you bow your head, close your eyes, put the distractions aside, and listen to that voice. It's a whisper. You won't hear it with your ears, You'll hear it with your spirit. It'll be the voice that's been with you your whole life. Before the other voices took over the voice of the Father.

Welcoming you back home right now. I want to make a call all over the world on our church's anniversary for everyone who has never made the decision to place your faith in Jesus Christ, or you made that decision, but you've been in hiding. I want to issue a homecoming invitation and tell you that the table is already spread, and the dead is already settled, and Christ already died. It's already covered, it's already done. The only thing left

for you to do is receive it. So right now, pray with me out loud wherever you are, everyone in the room, praying out loud for the benefit of those who are coming to God or coming back to God. Pray with me right now, Heavenly Father, today is my day of salvation. I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the savior of the world. I believe Jesus died for my sin and rose again to give me life. I receive this new life, make me a new creation. I am a child of God on

account of three. If you just pray that with me, say it in the chat. I receive Jesus one, two, three, I receive Jesus. If you're in the room. Shoot your hand up right now, shut your hand up right now. I'm coming just as I am without one. Please, but that the blood of Jesus was shit for me. And he is enough. And you are enough. Yes you, yes, now, yes here. Today is the day. You're a new creation. You're a child of God. You are love, you are accepted,

you are Solecians. Come on celebrating with your hands lifted to heaven. Let's celebrate that homecoming. Thank you did. Listens, come on, let's thank God for his amazing love, his amazing grace that saved a wretch like me, a wretch like you. Yes you. I know you're not perfect, but there's grace. There's room for you and the family of God. We want you to be a part of our church. You're like who me? Yes you? Somebody say, yes you. But I don't live in Charlotte. You don't have to

look at this miracle. We're all over the world. We welcome you. We call it EPHAM doesn't stand for extended. It stands for everyone. Whosoever will let him come. I said, whosoever will let him call. Thank you, Jesus, We love you. Make sure you leave us a comment this week, make sure you say there I received Jesus. If you gave your life to Christ, make sure you say that was for me, Holly. If she preached the word that you needed to hear, but you're gonna be wrong because it

wasn't for you. It was for me. She preached that to me, But I'm glad you got to hear it. Praise the Lord. How many receive what God gave us today through Holly? Yes you, thank you for joining us. Special thanks to those of you who give generously to this ministry. Is because of you that this ministry is possible. You can click the link in the description to give now or visit Elevationchurch dot org slash podcast for more information and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe.

You can share it with your friends. You can click the share button, take a screenshot and share it on your social stories and tag us at Elevation Church. Thanks again for listening. God bless you.